Eastern Sierra Workshop part 2

Mobius Arch

The first afternoon we met Jack and Guy Tal, accomplished landscape photographer and second instructor for this workshop.

After introductions we started learning about landscape photography, composition, becoming familiar with your location, tell stories with your images along with many other topics.  This is not an “Okay everybody set your aperture to XXX and shutter to XXX and shoot” workshop.

Once we got in the field Jack and Guy were there for questions but otherwise they stood back and let us do our thing.  This was my first workshop so I did not know what to expect.  Several others have been on other of Jack’s workshops as well as workshops put on by other photographers.  The class is made up of primarily men with a couple of women.  With the exception of one high school student our ages spanned late 20’s through retirees.

We organized into carpool groups minimizing the number of vehicles going to any location.  At some of the locations parking spots were limited.  High clearance vehicles are necessary for one of the locations, but in general a standard car could get you to each spot.  I did stop at the local grocery store to pick up some extra snacks and fruit along with several bottles of water.  The days were warm during the time I was there, although the mornings were cool to cold.

The next morning started early, on the road by 430.  We were not able to stay close to the selected location because of some conference so we drove an hour to the Alabama Hills.  There is not much traffic at 5AM.

This is a unique area which was used a lot in cowboy movies and is still used for commercials.  In fact the road we took once in the area is named Movie Road.  I Googled movies and Alabama Hills and found the first movie was shot in 1919 and the last movie was ‘The Lone Ranger’ with Johnny Depp.

Being my first day, at the first location, I shot a lot of images. “Ooh look at the light, click, ooh it’s better now, click, ooh…. click, click, click.”  You get the idea.  I did very little to enhance these images.  Maybe increase the contrast a bit.  The colors are real!  The sky is pink and blue and in between.  It’s amazing what you see when you make the time to be there when the sun comes up as well as when the sun goes down.  The other secret for great sunset images is that you wait for the colors to change after the sun is down.  More in a later post.  I also quickly learned to occasionally turn around to see what is going on behind you.  Not only is the lighting great on the front side, the silhouettes with the bright sky can also be spectacular.

After catching sunrise moving across the mountain tops we walked a few hundred yards to the Lathe and Mobius arches.  All along the way we were stopping and shooting whatever caught our eye.  I knew from previous experiences when hiking around NM that once the sun is up the lighting gets harsh so it does not pay to shoot the grand landscapes you have to focus on smaller vignettes instead.

Lathe Arch

After a few of the locations I realized that not only am I learning to improve my photography, I am going to the prime spots at the prime times to improve my photography.  You just have to be open to the fact that you will have long days, before sunrise and after sunset but it is worth the effort.  We stopped during the day with adequate time for both breakfast and lunch before going on to the next location.

Thank you for stopping by,

Mark